Google Expands Voluntary Buyouts Offers To 5 Countries, Could Get Up To 12 Months’ Salary

Google has expanded its voluntary employee buyout program to five countries to manage costs while increasing investments in artificial intelligence. The initiative excludes key AI and cloud divisions like DeepMind, highlighting the company's strategic shift. This follows a similar, larger voluntary exit program recently announced by Microsoft.

Google has expanded its voluntary employee buyout programme to five countries as the technology giant looks to rein in costs while ramping up investments in artificial intelligence (AI), according to media reports. Investors are becoming increasingly concerned about the rising costs of AI infrastructure, and big tech companies are under pressure to show returns on their enormous expenditures.

Google, which is owned by Alphabet, revealed that it started providing voluntary leave incentives to some workers in Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and Switzerland in June. The company's larger initiatives to restructure its personnel and focus resources on its strategic goals include the most recent growth, which was not previously disclosed.

The number of employees who accepted the most recent round of buyout offers was not disclosed by Google. According to a corporate spokeswoman cited by Reuters, some teams implemented voluntary leave programs with severance benefits in 2025. In June of this year, the concept was extended to a few countries worldwide.

The most recent action comes after Google implemented similar voluntary leave programs in its US and UK divisions last year. These offers, according to company officials, are a choice for workers who don't agree with the organization's speed or direction.

It's interesting to note that some of Google's most significant AI and cloud businesses seem to be spared from the buyout scheme. The article claims that workers at Google Cloud and DeepMind, the company's artificial intelligence research branch, were not included in previous rounds of voluntary leave offers, a trend that the most recent expansion also seems to follow.

According to three people familiar with the situation, the program included a number of divisions but left out DeepMind in Switzerland, where Google employs about 5,000 workers and runs a significant engineering hub in Zurich.

Employees had until mid-July to reply after the corporation publicized the packages in mid-June. In August, those who accepted the offer started to depart. One month's income for each year of service, up to a maximum of twelve months, was included in the severance package. According to reports, at least four workers out of a team of about fifty accepted the offer.

Microsoft Offers Voluntary Exit Programme

Google’s move has been reported just days after Microsoft announced a significantly larger voluntary exit programme, offering buyouts to approximately 60,000 employees, or more than a quarter of its global workforce.

The program's goal was to assist Microsoft in keeping expenses under control and funding its significant AI initiatives. Workers from participating teams in the US, Canada, the UK, and India who were at level 70 or lower were eligible. AI experiences, Copilot, finance, human resources, Xbox, and Windows + Devices were among the departments covered by the offer. Teams in charge of marketing, commercial business, and security were not included.